A mesmerizing narrative about the rise and fall of an unlikely international crime boss
In the 1980s, a wave of Chinese from Fujian province began arriving in America. Like other immigrant groups before them, they showed up with little money but with an intense work ethic and an unshakeable belief in the promise of the United States. Many of them lived in a world outside the law, working in a shadow economy overseen by the ruthless gangs that ruled the narrow streets of New York’s Chinatown.
The figure who came to dominate this Chinese underworld was a middle-aged grandmother known as Sister Ping. Her path to the American dream began with an unusual business run out of a tiny noodle store on Hester Street. From her perch above the shop, Sister Ping ran a full-service underground bank for illegal Chinese immigrants. But her real business-a business that earned an estimated $40 million-was smuggling people.
As a “snakehead,” she built a complex—and often vicious—global conglomerate, relying heavily on familial ties, and employing one of Chinatown's most violent gangs to protect her power and profits. Like an underworld CEO, Sister Ping created an intricate smuggling network that stretched from Fujian Province to Hong Kong to Burma to Thailand to Kenya to Guatemala to Mexico. Her ingenuity and drive were awe-inspiring both to the Chinatown community—where she was revered as a homegrown Don Corleone—and to the law enforcement officials who could never quite catch her.
Indeed, Sister Ping’s empire only came to light in 1993 when the Golden Venture , a ship loaded with 300 undocumented immigrants, ran aground off a Queens beach. It took New York’s fabled “Jade Squad” and the FBI nearly ten years to untangle the criminal network and home in on its unusual mastermind.
THE SNAKEHEAD is a panoramic tale of international intrigue and a dramatic portrait of the underground economy in which America’s twelve million illegal immigrants live. Based on hundreds of interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe’s sweeping narrative tells the story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize their own version of the American dream. The Snakehead offers an intimate tour of life on the mean streets of Chinatown, a vivid blueprint of organized crime in an age of globalization and a masterful exploration of the ways in which illegal immigration affects us all.
www.doubleday.com
1 有用 NoNo 2022-11-20 02:31:58 美国
内容禁爆瞠目结舌,又一本永生永世也无法于*出版的书。金色冒险号的命运完全魔幻现实,幕后大佬纽约🇨🇳城国际蛇头萍姐的故事更令人无限唏嘘,活菩萨是她,犯罪分子还是她。福建帮人口走私的背后运作远比想象中庞大复杂,障眼法十分机智(雇佣🇲🇽人在美墨边境出没,营造出🇲🇽非法ym无处不在的假象,使福建人相较隐形)某广场与独生子女政策为申请zzbh的🇨🇳人提供完美借口,而于此同时也的确有人遭遇不公,但🇺🇸司法又哪... 内容禁爆瞠目结舌,又一本永生永世也无法于*出版的书。金色冒险号的命运完全魔幻现实,幕后大佬纽约🇨🇳城国际蛇头萍姐的故事更令人无限唏嘘,活菩萨是她,犯罪分子还是她。福建帮人口走私的背后运作远比想象中庞大复杂,障眼法十分机智(雇佣🇲🇽人在美墨边境出没,营造出🇲🇽非法ym无处不在的假象,使福建人相较隐形)某广场与独生子女政策为申请zzbh的🇨🇳人提供完美借口,而于此同时也的确有人遭遇不公,但🇺🇸司法又哪能明辨是非,几多冤屈无处言说。宁可于🇺🇸收监也拒绝回国,这些滞留者们用仅有的厕纸创作出的雕塑作品更是美好到令人哽噎。一眼望去人心全是灰色,黑白分明的世界只存在于乌托邦。自由是唯一向往。 (展开)
0 有用 多么好呀 2024-09-19 01:00:44 北京
听的audible
1 有用 Baristina 2022-02-21 05:16:09
从上世纪末九死一生也要去美国,到如今中国也开始有非法移民的问题,还是发展了太多了。早期移民太勇了,瑞思拜
7 有用 左岸单行道 2023-03-30 14:24:00 美国
Audible 3.29.2023. PRK的非虚构写任何题材都引人入胜。略有一点遗憾的是缺乏对于福建宗族同乡观对移民潮的牵绊的解释,一再踏上偷渡旅程的人,并非如PRK理解的仅是"they are more American than I ever will be"的美国梦感召,更能够提供解释的因素大概是根深蒂固的宗族文化和紧密相连的乡土社群,which makes them more Chine... Audible 3.29.2023. PRK的非虚构写任何题材都引人入胜。略有一点遗憾的是缺乏对于福建宗族同乡观对移民潮的牵绊的解释,一再踏上偷渡旅程的人,并非如PRK理解的仅是"they are more American than I ever will be"的美国梦感召,更能够提供解释的因素大概是根深蒂固的宗族文化和紧密相连的乡土社群,which makes them more Chinese, not American. (展开)
0 有用 Doll 2011-07-02 07:41:49
one word: epic.